These are messages collected from the Nits Internet Mailing List. I didn't
change anything, except cutting off some his and byes..

Jolanda van Huizen - NL (Greatest Nits INC
organizer)

Hello all,
well, just got home. After a long day of standing, enjoying and listening. It was a
brilliant day. I had lots of fun.
I really want to compliment LICE, guys and Anna, you did a wonderfull job, especially why
you'd rehearsed hardly. Well done!!!

Furthermore, Clemens, big thanks to you as
well. I think you arranged most of stuff (besides Maarten who got LICE together as a
band).
There wouldn't be INC 2000 without you.

Dennis, also thanks for the Internetorganization. Great job.

And then we have our doormen, Pieter and Wilco. I think you kicked
quite a lot of people out today. Not. Good working with you guys anyway.

Of course big thanks and hugs to all (ex-)NITSmembers, without whom
there wouldn't be a day like this as well!!! Fantastic so see the original line-up; Alex,
Michiel, Henk and Rob, for the people who weren't there: you really missed something.
Sorry to say that.

Really good to see Joke playing again as well. She's still gooooood.
And seeing Martin drumming and playing guitar. I missed Arwen, Titia and Leona tho..
Girls, you let me down a little. Where were you???

Last but not least big thanks to all people who came to visit INC
today. It was amazing to find out how many people from outside Holland were there!!!
Fantastic!!! Always good to meet new people again.

Here's a little summary bout what happened today:

- At 11.00 am we opened the doors. We started with showing videos.
Cool. There was also a market. And Patrick's were there, Ivory Boy's parents. I really
want to say a big THANK YOU to all you guys who bought the CD. I think they sold for
almost 700 Guilders today, amazing. Thanks, also in name of Patrick's parents.

- Well, there wasn't enough time for a proper LICE soundcheck BEFORE
11.00 so they did that when the doors were open. Bilbao Boa. Good.

- After soundcheck, there were some more videos.

- At... well, I have NO idea what started what time but I think
Adrian and Deena from UK started at 13.00 pm or so. They did a great GND performance.
Adrian telling it like a fairy tale and Deena telling the story with handsignals.
Fantastic.

After that, LICE started. I got a setlist, SIGNED by all members,
YES, here it is:

Bilboa boa

Radio shoes

Erom on

Tender trap

Fishes

26A (clouds in the sky)

- After the first set of LICE there was the terrible difficult Tom
Telman quizzzz with all kinds of questions. I thought I would know a lot but no. Too bad.
I think Franck from LICE won 1st price, 1st NITS album (well, other 2 prices were won by
LICEmembers as well, I heard some rumours that that wasn't fair, well, LICEmembers are
NITSfans as well).

- Then there was the lottery. We had 50 prices. Lots of signed CD's,
lyrics, posters, pins, Hjuvi programme books, cards, drumsticks, mouth organ, drum skins
and... the very first album. Won by lucky winner (he also won 2 other prices) Eric from
Alphen Aan De Rijn.

- After the lottery they showed a special video. I have no idea what
it was, I was too busy giving people their prizes).

- Then there was the result of the quiz, already told you who won.

- And then... I think the thing everybody looked forward to: 2nd set
of LICE, together with (ex-) NITS members. There was Spirits Awake with Michiel. They
played Skateboard Boy and Dapperstreet. Then there was Typist of Candy with Martin on
drums. Then there was Statue and Frog. And they ended with In The Dutch Mountains with
Henk. Well, they HAD TO do another song with Henk. That turned out to be Bilbao boa.

O.k. Now I'm not sure anymore. I'm gonna write down what I THINK
they did after that.

That's all I can remember. It was so bloody good to see those guys
playing again. And they played very well!!! Although they couldn't beat LICE :-)

Well, I had a FANtastic day. Although I can barely walk right now
because of my back hurting but I think more people will suffer from that as there wasn't
much room to sit down.

I'm sure other people will add more. I think it was worth organising
it. See you guys all over 25 year again. Or sooner!!!!

Thanks again to all of you who helped and came
over. Hope you foreigners had a safe trip back.

Jochen Stein - DE

just got back from INC in Utrecht. I had a wonderful time there,
thanks to Clemens, Dennis, Jolanda, Wilco, Pieter and everyone
who helped to make it possible. Since I am quite tired, I will
not write a lengthy report, but take a look at the pictures onwww.nitsfans.org (they are in the live picture
section), I am
sure more will appear in Dennis' concert file.

Just to add a few remarks to Jolanda. I do fully agree with her.

LICE:
> 26A (clouds in the sky)
Yes, and what a difficult song that was! Congratulations for doing it!
> - After the first set of LICE there was the terrible difficult Tom =
>Telman quizzzz with all kinds of questions. I thought I would know a lot =
> but no.
I did not do particularly well either. One should have learned all records
and the Nits book by heart, and you still could not answer every question.
> - After the lottery they showed a special video. I have no idea what it =
> was, I was too busy giving people their prizes).
Looked like self-made video from the Japanese mini-tour this year.
> Henk Rob Alex Michiel playing Red Tape, Bild Am Sonntag (As Usual), =
> Infant King and Tutti Ragazzi.
And they played 4 Ankles, another great song from Tent. Good to hear the
old tunes again.

Paul Lieverse - NL

Just in one word: GREAT!
I really enjoyed today! I was quite surprised to see so many people!
And people of all ages (which was different at the concert in Eindhoven,
at least from my perception).
LICE was great. They were really having fun on stage. Some of them were
really going crazy every now and then (Jelle! who was, by the way, also
great!). And then of course the part where all the Nits guys came on stage.
Also great! I heard some great songs today that were unknown to me. I'll
be shopping around for some of the older CD some time soon, that's for sure!
Now I'll go to bed, but first I'll put this green CD in my cd-player...

Burkhard Wiche - DE

I just returned from Utrecht, so here are my personal
impressions of INC-day:

4:30 Mid European Time:
The alarm clock is ringing. Shut up!

6:15 My train is leaving Mainz Hbf.

6:20 I'm waking up. Sh*t! I'll miss the beginning
of my second Nits convention - the first one was the first Nitslist
meeting at the Robert-Jan-Martin-Peter-farewall concert in Amsterdam...

12:26 Arrival at Utrecht Centraal Station.
There are musicians all over the station and the neighbouring
shopping mall. To my surprise, the shops are opened on sunday
(germans are not used to that).

13:00 Finally found "Stairway to heaven", 2 hours later
than planned.
A memorable afternoon starts. LICE, playing really good.
Close to me, Rob, Martin and Peter are enjoying the music;
it's not only fun to see Rob playing but also to see him listening
to Nits music!

The quiz: Very difficult, I didn't know much. But that's not
important;
the videos were funny - who had more fun with it, the makers or us
watchers? The best question was the one about the speaker of "mountains"
and "buildings" - good surprize effect, we all already thought,
"yeah, I know one", and then this question ... Did anybody guess
Rob's songs (especially tons of ink ;-))) )?

I never had seen the original Nits before, my first Nits concert was
in 89. Great to see Joke on stage again - her voice still makes me melt.
Martin enjoying playing Nits on drums, Peter and Rob anyway.

And where else can it happen that professional musicians perform
together with their fans, enthusiastic amateurs?

16:45 It's over! It was worth it. And I spent nearly 300 Dutch
guilders
for entry and drinks, but mostly for t-shirts, CDs and the frits video.

Only bad thing abount INC: Very small trading of nitsy stuff - I had
expected more stuff only available in NL: more CDs from Nits (singles,
...) and related bands and musicians (Gruppo sportivo, ...).
Or has it all been sold out in the morning? And what about the videos
we saw on the screens? I liked the one with the nits playing in an
austrian park with people throwing coins into the suitcase...

Talking to several Nitslist people (Sandra, Jochen, Dennis, Maarten,
Clemens, Jolanda, Thorsten, ...), getting autographs of nearly all actual
and Ex-Nits on my ticket (when did Alex leave - too early to complete the
collection!) and talking to them, finally sitting on the table
where the today's female Nits sat. They had a really relaxed afternoon,
but I regret they weren't on stage. So I'll have to return to NL
to see Leona on stage for my 1st time.

Also Eric (the one with the letter) was there; he first wanted to
make an english introduction to his quiz song, but then thought
"that's too easy", and that's why he did it in "Schweizerdeutsch". :-)

19:30 Having left "Stairway to heaven", the place of a
very special
afternoon, I'm walking through Utrecht, enjoying the special atmosphere
of its "valleys of stone" around the gracht.

1:52 Mainz central station again. What a day!

Thanks to all those who made NIC this success!

Henrico Pit - NL

I agree, it was a great day. The original Nits on stage was for me
the
highlight. It makes my flesh creep.... Never saw Michiel and Alex live.
Michiel was a little uncertain, but he played and sang nice. After the show
I asked him an autograph en he gave me the lyrics of songs he played, but
there were also the lyrics of one I never heard of, and he didn't play
either yesterday.... It's called Always It's You. Who knows this song?
By the way, I thought the original 4 also played Shadow Of A Doubt.

The members of LICE were playing very good. But 26A is a difficult
song to
play, we all know now.... :-)

Thanks to the organizing committee, very good. It was a pity that we
couldn't follow the videos very good due the soundcheck, but I understand
that it was necessary of course. It was nice to see the young Nitsfaces and
Petra Lugtenburg on video, who I missed yesterday. After her Nits-period
she was dj (Radio 10), the singer of Siobhan and later Petra', then I never
saw her again.

Well, thanks again; it was a great day. I'm looking forward to the
concert
in Nijmegen next month.

Adrian Whitaker - UK (musical performance at
Greatest Nits INC)

Deena and I got back to Lndon about midnight after Nits Inc - we had
a
great time and we'd like to thank all the organisers for their hard
workparticularly Maarten, Dennis, Clemens and Jolanda. We were in such a
rush to catch our train we didn't have time to say goodbye to everyone - so
bye Arnoud, it was nice to meet you!

If anyone videoed our song (GND) we'd love a copy!

Dennis Versteeg - NL (Greatest Nits INC
organizer and LICE member)

Usually I quickly write down what I think (people who met me know
that's
also the way i talk..). But this time I want to carefully find the right
words to describe this day. I was thinking of how to do this and I think I
found the best way to describe it is with one word:

WOW!!!

OK, I guess everyone expects me to write a long piece about this
day. and I
won't disappoint you with that! I will not write here about the final,
great, but exhausting 6 hour LICE rehearsal on Saturday, but expect to see a
story about that on the LICE page on the Greatest Nits website soon.

The day started early at 6:30 and after feeling very zombielike we
(Wojciech, Beata and Krzystzof, who were staying at my house) left at 7:30
for Utrecht. This was quite a trip.. First a half hour walk to the train
station, because the buses didn't go that early on Sunday. Because of
railway construction we had to take the bus to Den Bosch and from there we
took the train to Utrecht. What usually takes just over one hour now took 2
hours.. We arived in time at Stairway to Heaven to help out with setting up.

All organizers and LICE members were there in time and things
started to go
quickly. Unfortunatlely the waiting for the LICE soundcheck took longer and
longer. I guess it was worth it in the end, because I heard we sounded clear
to the audience, but it was a bit frustrating that we had to wait that long.

Final preperations were made (sticking labels on wine bottles,
installing
the ticket tables, etc) and just after 11:00 the doors went open and the
group of fans waiting outside could finally come in.

Tickets were paid, posters and free CDs received (A special remix of
frog,
only available at Greatest Nits INC and a free CDsingle of Ivory Boy). Also
Mychael Gerstenberger's beautifully remasterd Henk/Kilo inserts and his
often Nits inspired postcards were very wanted! Mychael made incredibly nice
sketches during the saturday LICE rehearsal and also during the Greatest
Nits INC day. He told me he will scan them and send them to me, I will then
put them online.

Many people found their way to the merchandizing stands, which
included
official Nits merchandise, a record salesman with besides Nits a huge
collection of collectable stuff by other artists and Patrick Iliohan's
parents with his CD. I'm glad to hear from Jolanda that they sold a lot of
CDs! I'm absolutely sure that Patrick was in the room in spirit somehow.
If you still don't have the CD, please contact Jolanda and she can arrange
it for you.

A video program was started with many old tv performances and
interviews.
Unfortunately I hardly saw any myself, because I was running around too
much.. The videos were made available by the Nits and they even made a very
nice and funny compilation of their trip to Japan especially for this day.

Finally LICE could soundcheck and we played Bilbao Boa 1.5 times
(and
already received our first applause!). Sound was good, so we were ready to
play when the time was there. Luckily, Adrian could also do a soundcheck for
his performance.

Not just more and more fans kept coming, also one by one Nits
members and
former Nits members arrived. The first one was Petra Lugtenburg and during
the day everyone came (except Robert Jan Stips, who we knew was not coming
because he had some things that were impossible to cancel). So there were:
Henk Hofstede, Rob Kloet, Michiel Peters, Alex Roelofs, Petra Lugtenburg,
Joke Geraets, Peter Meuris, Martin Bakker, Laetita van Krieken, Arwen
Linneman and Leona Philipo. Of course both the Telman brothers, Tom and
Paul, were also there. Unfortunately the roadies were all unable to be
there.

For us fans it was great to see all of them together (I had a card
signed by
everyone. I will scan it and put it online). I loved seeing some former Nits
for the first time, after hearing so much of the great music they made. Also
for the band it was very nice I think. They had a sort of reunion and I saw
several of them together in varying groups throughout the day.

At around 13:00 most people had arrived and the 'stage' part of
Greatest
Nits INC began. Wilco welcomed us all and introduced Adrian and Deena from
the UK. They had made a string quartet version of Giant Normal Dwarf for
LPN2 and they performed it live. Adrian recited the words to the song over
the very nice backing music, while Deena whispered backing vocals. It was a
very visual performance with Adrian sitting on a barstool lighting up a
cigarette and showing his favorite book (James Joyce - Ullyses). Deena acted
out the lyrics with hand signals. The song is rather short, so their
performance was over quick, but it received a big applause and I think
everyone loved it. I know I did!

There was a break after this (I believe some more videos were shown)
and
some time later it was time for LICE! Wilco introduced us and we were ready
to begin. After our last rehearsal we were confident that it could work out
fine and luckily everything worked. We didn't make so many mistakes and I
think our entusiasm was clear to everyone.

Our first song was Bilbao Boa, sung by Francois. It's a fun song to
play. I
had a lot of fun doing the backing vocals. It went very well and gave us
confidence for the rest of our set.

I had the role of talking to the audience which I liked to do a lot.
It was
my first time ever on stage (I do sometimes give a lecturea in scientific
conferences or at our university though, but that is totally uncomparable
with this).

The next song it was time for me to sing. It was Radio shoes. I
also played an ocarina flute in it. The flute is quite old and simple and
actually broken.. It's impossible to play it in tune, but I think the effect
worked well! Radio Shoes is a strange song with strange lyrics and I'm glad
I sang them right! Robert's drumming in this one was very cool!

The third song was Erom On, sung by Jelle. I think everyone could
see and
hear that Jelle has experience in performing! This was another great one to
do. My job was singing along with the loud parts, which was very cool. I
love the bassline of this song and Maarten delivered it greatly.

The fourth song was Tender Trap, very nicely sung by Franck. It was
also the
first song in which Anna had some prominent vibes parts. I only needed to do
a couple of backing vocals in this one.

The fifth one was Fishes, again sung by Franck. This song is so
catchy! I
only had to stand around in this one and listen to my fellow LICE members
play it! I haven't mentioned Tenno yet, but now it's time to mention that
he's a fantatic keyboard player!

After I introduced everyone our last song was 26A (Clouds in the
Sky). A
very beautiful song, but also quite scary to sing.. We split it up in three
parts. First Franck then me and for the loud part Jelle. anna led the chorus
parts where Jelle, Tenno, Franck and me harmonized with her.

After a promise to come back later we exited the stage very happy
that
everything worked out fine.

The next part of the day was the Tom Telman Quiz, which was a lot of
fun. It
was clear that he, the band and the roadies put a lot of effort in this. He
structured the quiz around video and audio clips. First we had to guess the
song after an audioclip was played of a demo version of those songs. Very
interesting! The next part were roadies and Nits members interpreting Nits
songs by making various noises... Very funny! Then there were lyrics
questions, of which some were quite difficult. The following section was
very exciting. Rob Kloet came on stage and drummed parts of 4 songs which we
had to guess. Very difficult, I only knew one. He also had a fifth one he
wrote down: "Which song begins with 'TRAK TRAK BONK BONK'". I didn't know
but later found out it was Tons Of Ink! There were some trivia questions
with very interesting audio and videoclips. One had the interview with a
Japanese guy talking about Buildings and Mountains. The samples of this
interview were used for 'In The Dutch Mountains'. Very funny to see the
original film. The question was the name of the Japanese guy which was
written above on the screen during the film, but no-one remembered of
course! Another very cool one was Henk singing 'Mack the Knife' as a little
boy with a rather high voice. Unique recording,. The question was who wrote
(Kurt Weill). Another question was the name of Rob's first band (The
Acclaim). The alst section consisted of friends of the Nits interpreting
songs. There was Eric Facon who explained a song in schweizerdeutsch.. It
was of course 'Letter to E'. Very nice was two of Henk's daughter's singing
'Seven Green Parrots' in Dutch and Tom's own son 'Tjip' doing The Darling
Stone, which I think no-one recognized..

Tom did an amazing job collecting the questions, making the videos
and
presenting the quiz!

The next event was a lottery with some great prizes, such as
hand-written
lyrics, signed CDs and cards, drumsticks, signed drumskins and a copy of
Nits debut LP.

After a break the results of the Tom Telman Quiz were presented. All
of the
prizes went to LICE members (Tenno, Jelle and me and the big prize winner
Franck!), which proved that LICE consisted of some of the biggest NITS fans
who else would be crazy enough to play songs in front of an audience with so
little rehearsals..). The first prize was another Nits debut LP. Jelle and I
won handwritten lyrics.

After the quizes and lottery it was time for the second set of LICE.
we had
some surprises in this set and we were very exited to start.
We started immediately with the first surprise: Michiel Peters joined us on
stage to sing and play guitar on Spirits Awake. He used Jelle's guitar, so
Jelle took some percussion instrument for this song. It was great to see and
hear him play again. Before I had explained to him how we played the song
and we managed to get through the whole song very nicely! Anna got another
chance to play the vibraphone very prominently. It was great singing and
playing with Michiel.

The next song was also a surprise: Skateboard Boy. this is a song
that the
Nits wrote and played live a lot in the late 1970s. But now we played it for
the first time in over 20 years, much to the surprise of the audience who
didn't know the song and the original Nits, who I think had forgotten about
this song. It's a fun song to play and to sing (which I did). Symeon played
a cool 'ambulance' guitar solo.

The third song was better known: Dapperstreet. I think we managed to
play it
very well and Jelle's vocals were amazing! I loved doing the backing vocals.

The fourth song had another special guest: Martin Bakker, but he
didn't play
bass, but took over the drumkit. Franck and Jelle started it on guitars.
Jelle sang the song. I did backing vocals and some percussion thingy.
Martin's drumming was very subtle in the beginning, but halfway through he
entered in full force. Tenno's keyboard solo in this song was fantastic I
think. Martin got the chance to some great banging on the drums in the
ending!

The next song proved to be very difficult to play in the rehearsals,
but on
stage it turned out great. Symeon got a chance to show off his guitar
playing abilities. He went full force into it! Also Tenno played distorted
noises. Franck and I switched lea vocals a few times in the song and we also
sang together in some parts.

For our last song of our regular set Robert came back to the drums
and we
played Frog. I bought a small toy frog which made frog sounds. After
introducing the frog as the next special guest I started the song by
squeezing it and frog noises came out. Anna did the vibraphone intro and we
went in full force into Frog. Jelle and Anna sang lead together. I joined in
on backing vocals. Maarten played very cool bass in this song. Symeon did
the Henk's keyboard solos on his guitar! Tenno played the horn parts
excellently on his keyboards.

After this fun songwe took a bow. The audience wanted more so we had
another
song for them, with another special guest.

Henk hofstede came on stage to play Franck's guitar and sing In The
Dutch
Mountains with us. It was great fun and the audience liked it a lot I think.
At some points in the song I was sharing the microphone with Henk which was
amzing! Henk and Jelle were jumping around during the song, which was great.
The soft middle part was a lot of fun as well with almost all of LICE doing
the high 'ah-aaah-ah' parts.

We thought it would be over for LICe now, but the audience asked us
to do
another one. We didn't know anymore, so we played Bilbao Boa again, this
time with Henk on lead vocals. It was a great ending to our performance!

Many people thought this would also be the end of the day, but no:
as a big
surprise there would be more live music, this time by various Nits and
ex-Nits members. Most LICE band members and organizers knew about this, but
I think it was a big surprise for most of the fans in the audience.

First Henk invited Martin Bakker back ons tage, this time he took
the
guitar. Together they played Chameleon Girl. At some point Tenno couldn't
resist and he started to play with them on his keyboard!

Martin left and it was time for Peter Meuris to sit behind the drums
and
Joke Gereats to come on stage with her standing bas, which she had brought
along. It was great seeing and hearing Joke play again. With the three of
them they played Home Before Dark.

Next Michiel came back on stage and joined them, this time with his
own guitar.
They played Adieu, Sweet Bahnhof. This was an amzing line-up: three generations
of Nits on stage: Michiel played with Nits from 1974-1985, Joke from 1986-1989
and Peter from 1991-1996! Only Henk had played with all three previously.

Peter and Joke left after this. Henk moved to Tenno's keyboard,
Michiel
stayed onstage and then came the most unique part of the performance when
Rob and Alex came on stage: A reunion of the 4 origianl Nits members. They
hadn't played together with the four of them in front of an audience since
1981! They played six songs: red tape, bild am sonntag, shadow of a doubt,
four ankles, the infant king and tutti ragazzi.

I had never even dreamed of seeing those songs played by them again!
Alex
sounded fanbtastic. It's like he never stopped playing since 1981. Even the songs
which were from after his period with Nits sounded great. It seemed like it was over
in 5 minutes. The reunion with the original 4 lasted about 20 minutes though.

This was really the end of the day. Anna called all the organizers
on stage
and thanked us. Clemens said some words and Pieter presented the special
bottles of 'Vin de Nits' that were given to all organizers, LICE members and (ex-)Nits.

People then started to leave. Many of the Nits stayed for a while
and I received many
thank-yous and compliments from fans and Nits members: thank you all for that!

After most had left we remained with a group of about 20 people and
we had an excellent
dinner in Stairway to Heaven, before we all went home.

Today I'm still walking around with a smile! THANK YOU to everybody
who
helped making this day a huge success!

The Greatest Nits INC website will be transformed into a 'memory'
page. So
if you have taken photos or want to write your thoughts on the day: There
will be a place for them on that page. If you have photos, I would prefer
scanned ones. But if you can't scan then I can do that and then send back
the photos.

I'll keep the list informed about this page!

The End (finally...)

Marten Holst - DE

Just my first impressions (rest is coming after lunch)

Wow!

Great!

Incredible!

Wow!

Yes!

Ooooooh yeah!

Wow!

Yes, now that everyone has written a review, I have no more news to
tell. So
I will instead tell old news again, because at the moment at the university
everybody's running away from me - I keep annoying them with talking about
some strange concert on the weekend all day long.

So what happened? Well, a truly great weekend (except for some
organizational flaws on my part which had nothing to do with INC whatsoever,
so I won't mention...). It was for sure the greatest music related event in
my life so far and probably it will stay like that.

Already before opening it was nice to see some people from all over
Europe
again and talk to them. Unfortunately I did not find the time to talk to
everybody I knew a lot, as there were so many things to do and to watch.

First thing: I spent some money on Nits clothing. Well, actually a
lot of.
More than I should have. Whatever, as a good customer, I got one T-Shirt for
free... Talking about sales, I am very, very pleased to hear that the
Disch-CDs sold well, as I saw the stand quite unoccupied at times. But it's
great to hear that it was worth it. Still, if you want to buy a great CD and
do some favour to charity, try to get it.

Of course the really great artwork from Mychael and his friends of
the Dutch
opera. I already knew them, but I really appreciate this nitsy work, and the
new Henk/Kilo cover really improves the CD more than it already was. Or if
you want to send great nitsy postcards...

Then there were the "regular" parts (whatever you call
regular on a day like
this). The LICE rehearsal already promised a lot, but as it turned out a lot
less than they actually did. The videos were lovely watching and much better
than the MTV programme which was seen when videos were changed. Much better. ;-)

I'm not working chronologically here, but the Nits fan performances
were
great. The ITDM reading suffered a little (for me) due to me standing behind
a column and having to try acrobatics to really see, but it was worth the
pain in the back I got. A great reading, a good performance, a longing for
more. Very athmospheric.

The first set of lice: Great. Awfully great. I thought it was quite
brave to
try on 26A, but it was great. Despite Symeon humbly explaining that it was
one of the easier songs. Well, the others were truly exceptional as well,
and I liked the setlist a lot, with a great covering of the whole Nits era.

The Tom Telman quiz: hilarious. I teamed up with Marjolein and we
definitely
had more laughs than points - but we would have had this result even with
maximum points, as the ideas were great. The videos were great and funny,
the Demos, the lyrics contest (hey, I though I knew them by heart and I even
did not think about the Trombone part). The incredibly unfair question about
Mountain Man's name (I think I missed the next few questions due to rolling
on the floor, laughing aloud). The drums - have you ever tried to recognize
a song from the drums? I thought, such a quiz can be only dull or easy or
both, but there was no hint of one of them at all. I think I won the biggest
price in this in just participating.

The lottery. :-( Didn't win anything :-(

;-)

Though all the prices would have been fine.

And the second LICE/Nits stage set. I'm having a lack of words here.
First
the "featuring special guests" part. Clearly everybody was enjoying
themselves, the music was superb, the songs were greatly performed, and a
new Nitssong is always nice to hear, even if it's more than 20 years old.

But the absolute highlight was the Nits playing in various
formations,
clearly having fun. The three-generation Nits, the original Nits. I've seen
all those members who left the band before I knew it - and it was great.
Great. Superb. I could start crying right now. Really. It's so wonderful to
see people play, whose music you admired for years and whom you thought you
could never hear live.

After that, it was hanging around, talking to the Nits members (and
yes, I
think that Michiel or Joke or... everybody is still a Nits member for me),
and of course getting my card with all the autographs except for Robert Jan
and Petra, whom I did not see.

The day rounded off, when I was home again at about midnight and
heard the
two CDs that were handed out.

As I already said, it was the greatest music related event in my
life. I
would like to thank all the people who organized it and took part in it. I'm
not putting a list here as I would be afraid to leave someone out. A big,
big thanks to all the Nits members (including the Telmans) of course as
well.

If I missed out any superlatives, please insert them somewhere in
the text.
They cannot be misplaced.

Finally, I hope nobody made any filming or taping this day, as this
poor
person will have an awful lot of spinning to do for all the people who want
copies (count me in for one please, whoever has it. Yes, this is a first
desperate attempt).

Anyway, I have to annoy some more people now, by talking about the
great
event I visited on sunday.

Sandra Gerhard - DE

It was such a great and very very special and historic day - thanks
to everybody,
to the ones who made it possible and to all who came.
I'm full with warm and soft feelings.

Jasper de Jong - NL

To all impressions of the others visitors of the Greatest NITS INC I
have
nothing to append, I fully agree with them. For my wife Willy, my son Mark
and me it was a great day, the atmosphere was very good and I got a kind of
"good family"-feeling. My compliments for all the organizers and thanks for
to make this possible.

One thing I like to know, is howmany fans there were in the Stairway
to
Heaven.Maybe someone of the organizers can give me an answer.

Again THANK YOU for this FANTISTIC day.

François Drouin - FR (LICE member)

This event was incredibly well organised.
Everything has been done as professional people would do, plus a great
sense of humour during many parts.
The work done to prepare all this just seems amazing to me.

I quite enjoyed singing one song, for my first ever singing
performance
on one stage (Bilbao boa).

I want to thanks everybody who took part in the event.
I only regret not having spoken to more people, you know, people you
know just my name thanks to this list, and to all the French speaking
people that were here.

Stefan Kaiser (Tenno) - DE (LICE member)

Well, what can I say... I was on stage with the Nits, and everything
else has
been described very beautifully by my mailing predecessors... but! I had Henk
sign the lowest key of my keyboard!!! I'll never wash it again!!!!
(Robert did the same with Rob and his snaredrum.) (not the washing, of
course.)

Jos van Raaij - NL

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!

That's my feeling about this rememberable perfect heavenly day.
I agree with all you NITSlovers on your opinions.

To add a little personal note:
I always find it very special that NITS meetings and concerts take place in a very warm,
familiar and friendly atmosphere. It's also nice to see for instance Henk's, Rob's and
whoelse's mothers, wives/kids/and who knows...

About Marten's question about taping:
I taped most of the meeting on my MD-recorder (audio), but unfortunately I somehow erased
the first set of LICE (too many drinks??). So, I have the rest of the show on tape and can
put
it on a cd.

But I rather hope someone has a complete recording of it (soundboard
recording perhaps?).
So if there's anyone who can help us with this, please do not hesitate and let us know.

Looking very forward to the concert in Nijmegen on december 17.

Bye for now and many many thanks for all of you people who
organised/played.
NITS were fucking great. Lice was abs fabs.

Jelle Amersfoort - NL (LICE member)

Wow, it was great, wasnt it?
I really enjoyed our Lice performance, i peformed many times with my own Dutch-project,
but i never was so "In Heaven"like yesterday.....

I've been listening to Nits all day now, including the wonderfull
Frog remix.It's really nice to hear
how they "re-faced"the song.I spent last night with my girlfriend in Amsterdam,
and i looked (almost)
all night long out of the window,straight into The Dapperstreet, thinking about the INC.

I wanna thank you all for a great day yesterday, and im looking
forward to the video and photo's!!

Marjolein de Jong - NL

Today is the second day after Greatest Nits INC, and I
still cannot really concentrate on my work. Every now
and then I catch my mind wandering off to last sunday.
I walk to my bookshelves to get a book and find myself
standing there not being able to remember what book I
was looking for. Yesterday I was teaching and gave my
students a few questions to answer, but when I wanted
to talk about their answers I couldn't remember which
questions I had given them. I'm wondering how long it
will take to more or less get over this...

Some people don't like Nits but consider themselfes my
friends and therefore feel obliged to ask what
Greatest Nits INC was like. I found out that it can't
be explained to anyone who was not there. The
atmosphere, the people I talked to, LICE, this
hilarious Tom Telman -quiz, Nits and ex-Nits
performing with LICE and something I had never seen
before: the original line-up of the band. I also took
the opportunity to collect signatures of former
Nits-members. Lots of very special moments to
experience within one day.

Lots of thanks to everybody who made this possible,
nitslisters as well as nits and ex-nits. It won't get
quited for quite some time...

Mychael Gerstenberger - DE

Hi, and hello to everybody who missed me at INC: I was there (It was
great - you
all know that by now), I saw the gig, I even saw the already legendary LICE
rehearsal, and I bought a couple of Ivory Boy- and Nits-CDs.

Thanks to Anna & Maarten, Clemens & Dennis and to all the
others behind the
scene - and the NITS of course.

(This morning my wife complained that I'm walking around with a
foolish
smile as if I'd been witnessing the Beatles' reunion - maybe she's right
somehow...)

(So, can I get on with my life now....;-) ?)

Franck Ducourant - FR (LICE member)

I arrived at home sunday night at 3.30. Fortunatly, I took my monday
off. I
couldn't really sleep though, as I still was excited by what we made and the
soft and warm atmosphere of the party.
I've just opened my e-mail box. No time to read them, lots of works... but I
printed everything. There is a lot to read, great !
I had lots of fun and was amazed by the quality of the result. Was the set as
good as I'd like to think it was ? The recording tape will tell... anyway, it
was nice to do it, with all of U. The audience seemed enjoying very much as
well and was very friendly. We made lots of signatures... didn't we ?
Without the passion we share for NIts, internet and people who organised
this, we probably never lived this wonderful day.
I hope we'll keep in touch and if you decide to come a few days in Paris,
I'll be your guide through La Gare du Nord and The Centre Pompidou...
I won't tell you Adieu, because it means farewell in french.

Symeon Charalabides - GR (LICE member)

this is mostly to let you know that I'm back in The Big Green and
will soon be
safely tucked away under a sheet of rain - that's my way from the university to
home. I will also need a good few days' worth of sleep to feel human again,
though there just doesn't seem to be any chance of that happening anytime soon.

Regarding the INC on Sunday, I really don't have much to add to what
has
been already reported. It's best just to lay low and read, especially since I
was one of the performers. However, the performers had easily as much fun as
the observers, and I think I speak for the rest as well. Moreover, some things
should be mentioned:

- I COULD have played better, so sorry about that.

- Apologies also to Jolanda and Mic whom I didn't get to say goodbye
to, since I was in the station while they were leaving.

- I didn't say goodbye to Marten either, and, even worse, I just
realised it was
him I'd been talking to after reading his e-mail. Won't happen again.

On to a happier note, I should thank:

- First and foremost Clemens, whose organization was impeccable (and
I say
this having seen some of it from the inside and also knowing this has taken him
considerable time away from his family). The rest of the organizers as well,
names withheld.

- Maarten for organizing Lice superbly, lending me his Fender amp,
which also
extends to Robert for the Zoom multieffect, and playing so competently, which
also extends to Robert and the rest of the gang: you know the names, you know
the faces. Tenno is excepted, of course, because he played the Hammond and
I'll never talk to him again.

- Rob and Tom for helping the INC so much, Henk, Michiel and Martin
for
playing with us and all the rest of the Nits (through the years) for showing up
and playing and in general giving us something to remember for a long time.

- All the fans who showed up, and since everybody cheered for us big
time (or
so it seemed at the time), especially the people who took the time to talk to us
after one of the sets, assuring us that it had gone well: it's better to give than
to receive.

- Jolanda for the (usual) hospitality the overall relaxed attitude
and the cats ;-P
Franck and Francois for driving me around and storing my battered

Washburn during Saturday night so I was free to have some witbier.
Sandra
for the company during the ICE ride back to Frankfurt, the consequent dinner
and the CDs.

...I made my way on foot from the Hauptbahnhof that night,
cherishing the
crisp fresh air through what seemed a deserted city. Though it had been a
mostly draining day after 3 nights of literal sleeplesness, even the usual grim
colours of Mainzer Landstrasse seemed to have taken a more humane shade to
them and, somehow, I couldn't stop smiling and giggling and occasionally
laughing out loud: we'd taken up the most improbable venture and actually
made it. I may even realise it soon...

PS: What were the chords again?

Arnoud van Vliet - NL

although a lot of things have been mailed around already about the
Nitsday
on the 19th of November, I thought it might be nice to hear the view from an
outsider. I have been a Nitsfan since the Red Tape/Nescio time, but due to
age and other reasons didn't see a concert before the Dutch Mountains tour.

My first CD was "In the Dutch mountains", and I have
almost all of their
CDs. Enough defence, I consider myself to be a fan, but in waves (it's up
now, I listen to "Work" while writing this).

The Teletext message on Dutch TV alerted me to the Nits INC, and as
I live
close to Utrecht, I thought it would be nice to have a look. But I was also
a bit anxious, as sometimes real fans can be totally blind to other things
going on in the world, and can be offended if you don't praise their idols
completely and continuously.

So I arrived late, just when the Quiz started. An empty chair, and
next to
me Adrian and Deena who kindly asked me to join their team. Although I
wasn't much help, I enjoyed the quiz and following conversation. Thanks
Adrian and Deena, and sorry I missed you when leaving!

And then the second (for me first) part of Lice. I was impressed,
the
quality of play and of sound was great, and I enjoyed their show (I love
Skateboard Boy). The addition of Nits members only added to the enjoyment,
especially seeing Michiel play. His songs, like the Spirits Awake played
here, have always been the more "quiet" songs on the albums to me. Not
instantly likeable, but more the ones that grow on you.

And then the different Nits reunions, those really made my day!
Especially
the "First Nits" one, who played a lot of songs of the old era. 4 ankles,
Tutti Ragazzi, some of my favourites.

Well, this well-organized and pleasant meeting has made me go to the
top
part of my "fan"-wave. I checked out whether the Nits play close to Utrecht
in the near future, and found out they play in my hometown Nieuwegein on the
8th of December! Is anybody going to that concert, it would be nice to meet
Listmembers there.

enough rambling for now, thanks to the organizers and fans for an
enjoyable
day.

Henk de Haan - NL

Today it is one week after the Nits fan club day.
I only see the last part. The concert with the old Nits members and the
first line-up. It was fabulous.
It was nice for instance to see Joke Geraets play bass and sing again.
I hope there will be an recording available.

I am Nits fan for more than 16 ? years and see concerts many times.
By chance I heard about the Nits day.
I met sonday someone (Marjolein?) who tipped me about this nits list. I
thank her by this for her tip.

I'am looking forward to the concert in Nieuwegein 8 December. Maybe
I meet
someone of you

Francis Remedios - CA

I really enjoyed myself at Greatest Nits INC. Coming from Western
Canada,
Edmonton, where the Nits are relatively unknown, it was great to meet the
Nits fans and to actually see the Nits live with most of the previous versions
of the band. The Nits have not played in Western Canada though they have
played Quebec, which is five hours away by jet plane. I also thought that the
Lice, especially the second set, were great given the limited amount of time
that they had to prepare. From the expressions on his face, Henk really enjoyed
the second set of the Lice, and he even joined them for a few songs. All in all I
thought Greatest Nits INC was a great event, and I thank you and your friends
for all the time and effort in organizing the event. I also thank Tom Telman for
giving me a Nits Ting sweatshirt.

Wojciech Dzieciolowski - PL

We are safely back home now. It took a little bit longer, as
we did a triparound the Netherlands and some Belgium, and also joined the Haarlem gig(together with AnnA & Maarten, Wilco & his girlfriend, and Thorsten). TheINC day was great and we had the only chance to see old members of the NITSplaying together. We are also great fans of the LICE now. I really wish Ijoined them and could play or sing. I will practice ...

Now our turn to thank you guys for organising the INC &
LICE....Also special thanks for Dennis, AnnA and Maarten who hosted us.